I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to a multi-antenna station.
II. Background
A wireless local area network (WLAN) has one or more access points that serve one or more user terminals. The number of access points and the number of user terminals are dependent on the size the WLAN. For example, a single access point may serve multiple user terminals distributed throughout a WLAN deployment area, which may be an entire building, a floor of a building, and so on. If the access point is stationary, which is often the case, then the performance achieved by each user terminal is typically dependent on the location of that user terminal relative to the access point. It is well known that a radio frequency (RF) signal is degraded by obstructions (e.g., walls) and artifacts (e.g., noise and interference) in the signal paths between a transmitter and a receiver. Thus, a nearby user terminal that is located close to, and in sight of, the access point can achieve better performance than a remote user terminal that is located far away from, and not in visible range of, the access point. Consequently, different levels of performance (e.g., different data rates) are typically achievable for different user terminals located in different parts of the WLAN deployment area.
It is desirable to provide similar levels of performance to all or as many user terminals as possible in the WLAN deployment area. There is therefore a need in the art for an access point capable of providing such performance to the user terminals.